At this stage of Jozy Altidore’s second season in the Premier League, you have to ponder which of his spells were worse — his season at Hull City or this current season with Sunderland. The young American striker has only scored one goal in the league for the Black Cats.

Up until this point, Sunderland manager Gus Poyet has been incredibly patient and supportive of Altidore, but the striker paid the price for his poor performances of late by not being included in the League Cup Final squad against Manchester City.

Since then, Altidore has remained positive in training and has played in the first team for Sunderland while Steven Fletcher has been injured, but the rubber will meet the road this Monday when Sunderland hosts West Ham United in a must-win relegation match.

Looking ahead to this weekend’s match, here’s what Gus Poyet told The Shields Gazette newspaper about Jozy Altidore’s current situation at the club

“I think Jozy has been finding it difficult for a number of reasons. It is a mixture of how we have been playing, of the position he has been playing and just the fact that it hasn’t been running for him.“It’s the way football goes sometimes too – sometimes you make a run to the front post and the ball goes to the back, then you make a run to the back post and the ball goes to the near post. It can happen time and time again and then you get paranoid and start thinking is it happening on purpose?

“But you can just have runs where you’re in roughly the right area but the ball just won’t drop to you, and I think Jozy has suffered a bit of that.”

“With Jozy, it has been hard for him. It was a great challenge for him to come back to England, to prove he could be better second time around than first.

“There’s nothing that can be done about the season so far and the games that have gone, so what Jozy has to do is to accept that and look to finish the season strongly in the games he’s involved in.”

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9 Comments

PatrickMarch 28, 2014

I don’t think this is a complete failure if he learns a lesson from it before becoming Freddy Adu.
When he decided to go to Sunderland I thought it was one of the worst decisions he could of made. Not only because Sunderland looked to be part of a basement relegation battle from my standpoint unless there was a serious overhaul. DiCanno wasn’t the manager that would be conducive for him to play under in my opinion. Those 2 are major in my opinion because he needs stability. The team doesn’t have to be the best team in the world, but one with some leaders and can provide a structure of sorts, and I feel that was the exact opposite from Sunderland.
I think he has the talent to play in the premiership and not just be a role player. Given the right situation he can excel, but if Sunderland was one of the only offers on the table he would of been better off holding out in the Netherlands until the World Cup. Then moving forward and finding a situation that suited him better. I’m sure numerous mid-level or fringe top their teams in multiple leagues across Europe would of had no problem of inquiring about him that would of worked out better for everyone. He still has plenty of time as a top level American striker, I just hope he learns from this season and can move forward in a positive way because he does have the potential skill set to still turn into a big time player.

He’s not scoring goals in the Premier League because the defenders are better than they were in Holland. Norwich’s Ricky Van Wolfswinkel is in the same position. Ultimately though, he’s unable to take advantage of the few chances strikers get, which unfortunately translates that he’s not quite good enough for the top league in England.

I have a problem with this assessment people often use for this reason: If you compare Jozy’s stats for the entire year with Steven Fletchers stats for the entire year, to me it shows there is a major problem with service to the strikers. Yes Fletcher is a bit injury prone and has had some issues but he’s taken nearly the same amount of shots he did last season with less games and only has 3 goals under his belt compared to the 12 or so he had last year.
While I don’t like DiCanno, I think his comments on the players and the inner workings of the club rang fairly true, and it has showed on the pitch. Inconsistency all over the place. Aside from a few small spurts in form from guys like Adam Johnson looking to make the World Cup this year, there hasn’t been many bright spots at all…

Altidore disproves the theory that many Americans claim that if American’s best athletes played soccer they would be the strongest team in the world. Altidore is that rare American player that has NFL/NBA athleticism but he is an average soccer player. Altidore exposes the flaws in the US development system. Yes he as power and speed , but he also has that American low technical ability and lacks football intelligence, that makes the USMNT an average team. England is most athletic league in the world and you need more than just being athletic to survive. I personally think American outfield players, have been over represented in England for the past 10 years. In Italy and Spain they do not rate American players because their technical level is so low, but I think in England they give American players more of a chance because they see the dollar signs if American does eventually become a star player. The US needs to change the development system so they produce the clever, creative high technique players like the other major nations have. Muscle alone is not enough. Well maybe for womens football.